WAS there a happy ending for Bennet sisters after Pride and Prejudice?

Elizabeth had her Darcy, Jane was matched with Bingley and Lydia was married to super-cad Wickham.

Thorn Birds writer Colleen McCullough takes up Jane Austen's story and speculates what happened after the pages of Pride and Prejudice ended.

She follows the fortunes of middle sister Mary - the tone deaf singer - and catches up with the family some 20 years later. Mary is now a confirmed spinster caring for her ailing, demanding mother until her life suddenly changes and she embarks on her own plans at last.

Darcy isn't too happy about his sister-in-law's behaviour, but Mary is out to make her mark.

Pride and Prejudice fans will have mixed feelings about a follow-up to the well-loved romance, but Colleen McCullough does write an entertaining yarn and she gives Mary adventures that would have had Jane Austen's female contemporaries swooning.